The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead (1949)

Timing: 1:52 (112 min)

6.9/10
133

7.071/10
1777

7/10
12000

All about film

Video 5

Photo 4

Actors and characters

Release date

1949-06-25

Country

United States

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures

Genre

Drama, Romance

Budget

$0

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

King Vidor

Actors

Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith, Robert Douglas, Henry Hull, Ray Collins, Moroni Olsen, Jerome Cowan, Bob Alden
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Henry Blanke

Operator

Robert Burks

Composer

Max Steiner

Artist

Audition

Editing

David Weisbart
All team (11)

• Ayn Rand (1905-1982) envisioned only King Vidor (1894-1982) as the director and Gary Cooper (1901-1961) as the lead actor.
• The view from Roark's office window is a montage – images of many real buildings.
• Initially, King Vidor planned to cast Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) and Lauren Bacall (1924-2014) in the lead roles, but Ayn Rand insisted on Gary Cooper. Bacall was approved for the female lead, but soon left the project. Warner Bros. approved relatively unknown Patricia Neal (1926-2010) for the role, but considered Bette Davis (1908-1989), Ida Lupino (1918-1995), Alexis Smith (1921-1993), and Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990). All of these actresses were rejected for various reasons. Cooper objected to acting with Neal, but a romance blossomed between them during filming.
• The entire film took only 59 days to shoot.
• The film's poor reception was generally attributed to Gary Cooper's participation, as he was not very convincing as a 20-year-old character at the age of 47.
• Ayn Rand was so outraged by the fact that Roark's speech in court had to be cut due to time constraints that she refused to grant permission for a film adaptation of her dystopian novel *Atlas Shrugged* (1957) for the rest of her life.
• Ayn Rand agreed to a film adaptation of the book only on the firm promise from the director that everything she had written would be included in the film.
• Ayn Rand was so outraged by the fact that Roark's speech in court had to be shortened due to time constraints that she refused to allow a film adaptation of the dystopian novel "Atlas Shrugged" (1957) for the rest of her life.